New Jersey Nursing License

Protecting your parents: Keep the sharks at bay

(Money Magazine) -- In 45 years as a service scheduler for a Northern California auto dealer, Art Tener learned how to stay organized. Even after retirement, Tener scrupulously kept up his calendar, noting appointments, daily chores, accomplishments.

That's how his son, Jim, learned that his dad had a new friend escorting him to meals and the museum.

"Who is this guy?" Jim asked. That question led Jim to the discovery that the "friend," a local insurance agent, had persuaded Art to roll $113,000 in savings he had in annuities into new deferred annuities that handcuffed the money for up to 16 years -- despite a terminal illness that doctors said meant Art had less than two years to live.

Art, then 79, had been worried about how he would pay for nursing-home care in case his wife, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, one day needed it. He believed the new annuities would help. But the transfers cost him nearly $11,000 in penalties; worse, since he couldn't get to his money without paying large surrender fees, he was no longer able to cover his living expenses without his children's help.

"He lost huge on this thing," says Jim, 52. "Instead of enjoying what turned out to be the last nine months of his life, he didn't have $100 to spare."

One out of every five older Americans has been sold an inappropriate investment, paid excessive fees for a financial product or service, or been a victim of fraud, according to a 2010 study by the Investor Protection Trust; new research from MetLife puts their collective losses at $2.9 billion last year.

Complaints about exploitation of the elderly are clogging the regulatory enforcement system: Some 44% of investor complaints nationwide came from seniors, and about one-third of enforcement actions involved elder investment fraud, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) reports; states with large older populations posted even bigger numbers.

Although that survey was done five years ago, interviews with more than three dozen regulators and consumer advocates suggest that the problem is just as prevalent today.

Says NASAA president David Massey: "Seniors remain our most vulnerable investors."

It's easy to understand why sellers of financial products, legitimate and otherwise, want to target your mom and dad: They're where the money is. After a lifetime of saving, with homes often paid off, the average household led by those 75 and over has a net worth of $638,000.

Nursing Home Abuse Causes RN to Surrender License

Get away with this abuse without punishment. Physically , verbally , financially , or sexually abusing an elderly or disabled person is unacceptable and should never be tolerated by other staff members or the administrators of nursing homes. The elderly are normally at their most vulnerable when they are living in a nursing home or long-term care facility. They depend on the staff of these facilities to care for them and have their best interest in mind. This is what makes nursing home abuse even more disgraceful; they are abusing their position as caretakers to take advantage of the elderly.

Myrna Siegel , a former registered nurse at the Sullivan County Adult Care Facility in Liberty, New York, is being charged with abusing patients. She has surrendered her license to practice as an RN after an investigation by the State Office of Medicaid Inspector General ”

As nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers, it is good to see that Myrna Siegel did not get away with abusing her patients and that her license was revoked so she cannot continue to hurt other elderly residents. Too many cases of elder abuse go unreported, but we can be proud when the system does work and the abusive caretakers are removed from nursing homes and facilities.